My Wimbledon What If…

I was watching Wimbledon this morning. Specifically, I was watching Venus and Serena face each other. The first set was so insanely close and tough fought it was enjoyable to watch. Now I'm not an avid tennis watcher but such a close final matchup between 2 big name sisters of tennis got me thinking something I often think about professional sports. …

Once again, I'm not an avid tennis fan ( or any professional sport for that matter ) but I enjoy the athletics of it. What I'm about to say has annoyed a few people as I've brought it up in conversation, but really it is just a what if. What if professional sports are moving more towards entertainment like professional wrestling. Long ago, professional wrestling saw the money to be made in having more entertaining matches and things got less real. What if other sports are moving in this direction?

We've seen inklings of people's greed making certain sports less about the competition and more about someone making money, but it usually doesn't benefit the entertainment value of the event. Watching the Williams sisters play together made me think, it was something for the network to sell and it was also quite entertaining. There were many things a good play by play team could discuss to make it even more entertaining.

So, despite the negative connotation that goes along with "fixed" games – what are some of the ways we could benefit in watching sports where outcomes ( or at least some level of play ) are decided before we even start watching. For example, how could it look in baseball? football? tennis? soccer? Remember, focus on how it could be made more entertaining, not just how some unscrupulous people can make money betting on the events.